


As Brothers We Will Stand

by TheGrayPlaces



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, F/M, HA see what i did there, Lucius Malfoy is very slightly less of an asshole than he is in the books, Not even remotely canon compliant, Remus Lupin is a teddy bear, What-If, Work In Progress, based on the books not the movies, definitely more tags to come, fuck the movies, hurt-comfort, possibly more pairings to come, the Marauders cause general mayhem
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2018-12-06 05:58:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11594364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGrayPlaces/pseuds/TheGrayPlaces
Summary: “Sometimes it seems like you’d rather be out there in the sun than in here with me.”“Don’t be ridiculous, James. You know that’s not true.”“Do I?”“I swear to you, James, I would rather live out the rest of my days in a sunless world than spend a single day apart from you.”In which Lucius Malfoy makes a decision that makes all the difference for one person, and none for another.





	1. Lily

**2 September, 1977**

**11.12**

 

Lily Evans was many things, but she was no fool. And she had watched James Potter torment younger students long enough to know him for what _he_ was - an arrogant, thoughtless boy who cared little for the feelings of others. Exactly the kind of person Lily hated.

Professor Slughorn thought they were a match made in heaven, sat him next to her at every opportunity, made pointed little quips about brewing up some love potion after class, but Lily knew better. She wasn’t one for meaningless flings, and there was no way she would ever agree to spend her life with someone like James Potter. Besides, Lily Potter just didn’t sound right, and James himself made it incredibly obvious that he was just as disinterested as she was.

So when the bell rang after Potions class the first day of seventh year, the last thing she expected him to do was touch her arm.

She ignored him, thinking he had just bumped her, and shoved the rest of her books into her bag, throwing a casual cleaning spell at her cauldron to scrub out the last remnants of the day’s potion.

“Lily.”

She slung her bag over her shoulder and tucked her cauldron under her arm, making her way toward the door as if she didn’t hear him say her name. She hoped with all her might that Slughorn’s attempts at matchmaking hadn’t begun to rub off on James now.

“Lily!” He grabbed her arm, the contact so unexpected she lost her grip on her cauldron. It crashed to the ground with a horrendous racket and she jumped back in surprise and collided with Sirius, who caught her by the elbows to keep her from falling.

She could feel her cheeks growing hot as she stooped to pick up the cauldron, ignoring his eyes on her back. She turned it over in her hands, looking for damage, and clenched her jaw when she saw the long crack down the side and the chunk missing from the base. She stood up slowly, her hands beginning to shake with rage.

“Lily, I’m sor-”

“What did you think you were doing, Potter?” she screamed, rounding on him, “Who do you think you are, grabbing me like that? I understand you’re the Quidditch star and the golden boy, and you’re used to girls tripping over themselves to get close to you, but none of that matters to me! What matters to me is you’re selfish and arrogant and cruel, and I’d thank you to leave me alone!”

The room had gone silent, all the heads in the room turned toward the scene. Even Professor Slughorn seemed at a loss for words. James was quiet for a few seconds, looking shell-shocked, and Sirius spoke for him. “It’s just a cauldron, Lily. We can fix it.”

“That’s not the point! The point is your mate James-perfect-Potter can’t keep his hands to himself! When have I ever given you any indication that I thought of you as anything other than an ass?” she shouted, directing this at James as a few of the girls in the room gasped and covered their mouths. “Next time you want to grab a girl and break her cauldron, make sure she at least thinks you’re a decent human being!”

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, and noticed for the first time that everyone was staring at her. One of the girls nearby giggled and leaned over to whisper in her friend’s ear, and the spell was broken. All of the confidence her anger had afforded her collapsed, leaving behind only humiliation. Not only had she drawn every eye in the classroom to her, she had done so by yelling at James Potter, the most loved student in the seventh year.

“I have to go,” she whispered, and the crowd around her cleared a path to the door.

“Lily, wait.” She felt his hand on her arm again, but this time all she could do was stiffen and wait for him to move it. “I didn’t mean to make you break your cauldron. Will you at least let me explain?”

“James, let her go. Come on.” Sirius took James’s wrist and removed it from Lily’s arm, and she swept out the door, blinking away tears. She would have to find a new seat in Potions. 


	2. Remus

**4 September, 1977**

**12.20**

 

It was two days before Lily showed her face again. James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus were sitting in the Great Hall eating lunch when Remus caught sight of Alice Warrington sliding along the far wall, carrying a plate full of food. She slipped through the doors without attracting any other attention and returned to the Hall seconds later, looking immensely pleased with herself.

“Isn’t that right, Moony?” Sirius said with a jovial slap on Remus’s back. Remus nodded with a smile he hoped was convincing and excused himself from the table, exiting the same way Alice had. It didn’t take him long to find her - everyone was eating in the Great Hall so there was really no reason for her to hide from anyone but Peeves. She was sitting on the common room floor with her back to the portrait hole, tossing balled up paper into the fire while she picked at her cobbler.

Remus climbed quietly through the portrait hole and made his way across the common room. One of the boards creaked under his feet and she flinched violently, scattering papers in every direction. Remus winced at the terror in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“Remus.” The fear morphed into nervous uncertainty as she started reorganizing her papers, never taking her eyes off him. “Come to scout for James?”

“No, James is still at lunch. It’s just me.”

“Sirius?”

“He’s with James.”

Her shoulders relaxed the tiniest bit, but she still shifted away from him when he settled next to her on the carpet. “So what is there I have that you want, Remus Lupin?”

“I don’t want anything from you. I just…” he hesitated, measuring his words carefully. He didn’t want to betray James, but she needed someone to talk to, and it didn’t seem like anyone else was up for the job. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry James did that to you on Friday. He was out of line, and everyone knows it. Even Sirius.”

Lily snorted. “Sirius? What, did you two have a heart-to-heart about James being a git?”

Remus shook his head. “He didn’t say it outright, no. But he was obviously uncomfortable with the situation, to someone who knows him.”

Lily groaned and buried her face in her hands. “So what are the odds of James going out of his way to make the rest of my life hell?” The haughtiness was gone from her voice, replaced by a miserable acceptance, and Remus wished he knew what to do to comfort her.

“I think… I think he really likes  you, Lily. I don’t think he’ll do anything to hurt you just because you yelled at him in one class.” He saw the disbelief in her eyes and plowed on. “And I won’t let him do anything, either. Not if I can help it.”

Lily looked away so he couldn’t see her expression and finished reorganizing the scattered paper. She seemed to be done with their discussion, so he quietly stood up and made his way out of the common room. She obviously needed some space.

“You’re a strange boy, Remus Lupin” she said to the back of his head after a long silence, “I don’t think I’ll ever understand you.”

Remus smiled thinly, stopping with one leg outside the portrait hole. “You don’t know the half of it.” He closed the portrait before she could say anything else and made his way back to the Great Hall, where Sirius, James and Peter were some of the last remaining students.

“Eh, look who’s back!” James said, swinging his legs over the bench to face Remus and planting his elbows on the table in a carefree way that belied the tightness that hadn’t left his jaw since Friday. “Where did you go, mate? None of us even realized you’d left!”

“Just went to get some air, that’s all. Why, did you miss me?” He tried to channel Sirius’s charming, sardonic smile, the one that always made others take him at his word no matter what. He could tell by everyone’s faces that they weren’t buying it. “Besides,” he hurried on, “I excused myself. It’s not my fault no one was paying attention.”

Sirius was staring at him over James’s head with narrowed eyes, clearly trying to read his expression. “Why are you so red, Moony? Go to see a girl?”

Remus’s stomach dropped. “No - ah, well, there was a girl there, but that’s not why I… she’s not…”

James dropped an arm around his shoulders, nodding sagely at the windows. “Rejection is a bitter pill, Moony. I understand what you’re going through. Let me know if you need to blow something up or cause general mayhem. I always find a few well aimed hexes at first years always make me feel better.”

Remus smiled uncomfortably and extricated himself from James’s grasp, reaching the common room a few minutes before the rest of them. He knew she’d be gone when he came back, but he still stared at the empty spot where she’d been sitting for a few long seconds before climbing the stairs to the dormitories.

**Author's Note:**

> Title and Inspiration from _Timshell _by Mumford and Sons__


End file.
